Release the FISA Documents

The public deserves to see the full record on the FBI wiretap request.

Carter Page speaks with reporters following a day of questions from the House Intelligence Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 2, 2017.PHOTO: J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS

By The Editorial Board

Feb. 11, 2018 4:16 p.m. ET

President Trump Friday refused to declassify the Democratic memo on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA), sending it back for negotiation with the Justice Department over intelligence sources and methods. This intelligence memo feud has become a frustrating political back and forth that needs to be trumped with more transparency.

Mr. Trump claimed in a tweet on Saturday that Democrats laid a trap with their 10-page memo, deliberately adding classified material that they knew “would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency.” That may be true, but it worked. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer quickly sent out a statement, “what is he hiding?”

Our sources say the Democratic memo—six pages longer than the GOP version released a week ago—has three main themes. The first argues for the credibility of Christopher Steele, the former British spy who compiled the dossier that the FBI used as the bulk of its justification for a wiretap on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The second is that the FBI had good reason to surveil Mr. Page, and third is that the GOP memo is partisan.

Newt Gingrich: Here’s my strategy for keeping a House Republican majority in November

On Wednesday, I was honored to speak at the Winter Meeting of the Republican National Committee about the how important and impactful the 2018 elections could be for America. Below is an excerpt of my remarks.

Let me thank all of you, particularly those I was just chatting with, for your generosity. I have been active in the Republican Party a fairly long time, longer than the younger people here have been alive. And I want to talk to you from the heart. When Ronna and I talked about coming by, I think it was precisely because I had enough distance to look at these things and to be involved on a number of occasions.

First of all, I thought last night’s State of the Union rivaled anything that Ronald Reagan did. It was just astonishingly effective. President Trump found specific individuals whose stories weren’t just important as wonderful human stories, but they each illustrated a part of the American tapestry in the American culture in a way that reminded all of us America is such a wonderful country. I thought it was a very powerful and very effective speech. Read more …

Migrants leave their homes for a reason—often fleeing chaos from poor governance.

In a closed-door meeting with lawmakers in the Oval Office on Jan. 11, President Trump is alleged to have used a vulgarity to describe the origin countries of some immigrants, including Haitians and Salvadorans. Or so Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) claimed, in an obvious attempt to embarrass Republicans.

Mr. Trump denies having used the expletive. Yet the gist of the remark is grounded in fact: A great many migrants to the U.S. are fleeing insufferable conditions, driven by poor governance. People vote with their feet.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Jan. 16, New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker ranted for 11 minutes at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen because she would not corroborate Mr. Durbin’s claim that the president had used a bad word in the meeting.

Mr. Booker’s histrionics bordered on parody. But the real trouble with all the righteous indignation from him and others about the alleged Trump insult is their cluelessness.

It should be obvious that when there’s no rule of law or property rights or strong civic institutions, daily life often degenerates into chaos. What is more, there is a long history in Mr. Booker’s party of supporting the ambitions of power-hungry, corrupt demagogues and left-wing populism in the Western Hemisphere.

It’s silly to ask why there are not more migrants to the U.S. from Norway, which has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Economically secure nations do not generate large waves of emigration.

Remember when Obama took office he spent the first 4 years BLAMING EVERYTHING including the RECESSION on George W. Bush instead of doing some thing to fix it? @realDonaldTrump could have blamed Obama. Instead Trump took responsibility and went about the task of fixing things.

Washington is going through one of its hoary melodramas with the threat of a partial government shutdown at 12:01 Saturday morning if Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill. These are usually worth ignoring, but in this election year we are likely to see more such showdowns. So it’s important to understand the rule of shutdown politics: Democrats want a shutdown but Republicans will get blamed for it.

This has been roughly true in every shutdown brawl we’ve watched going back to the 1980s. It doesn’t matter if a Republican is President with a Democratic Congress, or vice versa, or if Republicans run both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. Sometimes Republicans deserve the blame, as they did with Ted Cruz’s kamikaze run for ObamaCare repeal in 2013. But even if they work in good faith to avoid a shutdown, the media blame Republicans, and many voters figure the GOP must be at fault because it’s the party that prefers smaller government.

Democrats understand this and they use it as political leverage. That’s what’s going on this week behind the scenes as Republicans struggle to put together a budget that can get past the Freedom Caucus in the House but also get at least nine Senate Democrats to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.

Democrats don’t want to take yes for an answer. GOP leaders want to negotiate a two-year budget deal separate of negotiations over immigration. But Democrats are refusing, though the date when new work permits will no longer be issued to the so-called Dreamer immigrants is the first week of March.

Democrats are refusing even though the tentative budget deal being hashed out behind the scenes would also give them a big increase in new domestic non-entitlement spending over two years. Republicans would get more defense spending. Such a deal will give more Republicans heartburn on the policy merits, but Democrats still won’t accept.

Trump Tax Cuts Force Blue States to Deal With Harsh Reality: High Taxes Are Unpopular

The GOP-led tax overhaul signed into law by President Donald Trump has forced high-tax blue states to consider lawsuits and even calling for tax cuts of their own.

Democrats in New Jersey and California are considering allowing people to make charitable donations instead of paying certain taxes, according to the Associated Press. Democrats in Connecticut and New York are considering switching from income taxes to new taxes on payroll.

Some, believe it or not, are even calling for tax cuts.

At issue is the elimination of the deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) and a cap on the deduction for property taxes at $10,000.

“That’s bad news for people who pay a significant amount in such taxes and relied on the SALT deduction to reduce their federal tax liability,” Theodore Kupfer of National Review wrote.

“In other words, it’s bad news for rich people who live in blue states.”

Important Links

Come join us

Please join us to discuss current Colorado political issues from The Right Side.

The NSRF meets on the second Saturday of every month from 9:00 am-11:00 am at Amazing Grace Church, 541 E. 99th Place in Thornton . Use the north door to enter. Admission is $5 per person. Coffee, orange juice, bottled water, fruit, & pastries are included with your admission.

To receive our monthly newsletter, send an email with the word "subscribe" in the subject line to: info@northsuburbanrepublicanforum.com.

You can also join our Facebook Group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NorthSuburbanRepublicanForum/